15th Anniversary of Plan Colombia: Learning from its Successes and Failures

Though WOLA has always encouraged generous U.S. aid, we opposed the “Plan Colombia” package 15 years ago because of its human rights risks, its faulty approach to drugs, and its potential to intensify the conflict. Today, several security measures improved more quickly than we foresaw, Colombia contributed more of its resources than we expected, and U.S. troops did not get stuck in a counter-insurgency quagmire. Still, Plan Colombia’s results are not the “clear success” that the reigning narrative implies. We were unfortunately correct about the human rights damage, the prolongation of the conflict, and the stubborn persistence of drug production.

Over the years, U.S. aid to Colombia became more balanced as development and justice programs grew more sophisticated, and human rights conditions strengthened. We’ll never know whether a different approach from the start could have brought better results in less than 15 years. Today, though, a peace process nearing a final accord offers a historic opportunity to prevent the armed conflict—and the violent organized crime that still afflicts Colombia—from ever flaring up again. That will require a big new package of investments and foreign assistance: a new “Plan.”

So let’s commemorate Plan Colombia by learning from what worked and is applicable elsewhere, what didn’t and why it failed, and what should never be repeated. WOLA offers this data presentation to guide that discussion.

Nowhere else—not Afghanistan, not Central America, not Mexico—has success come from emphasizing the so-called “hard side.” Plan Colombia is an important foreign-policy case study, but not a model to replicate elsewhere. Click any panel to learn more.

Despite progress, Plan Colombia left much still to do.

Plan Colombia helped bring the country's security challenges from “nightmarish” to “severe.” A negotiated peace will be essential to get them down to “manageable.” Post-accord Colombia will need a much different “Plan.” Click any panel to learn more.